"Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road..." — Samuel Smiles

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

I'm as happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.

The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.